Vent on hood/windshield cowl... Leaking?

[Rexx66]

I never noticed this before but tonight I had the soft top on and felt air flowing from under the dash... I immediately thought this might be coming from one of the random leaks/areas when it rains water comes in. I can feel air from just to the right of the steering wheel under the dash, and also from the passenger side heater vent? There is a flap in that I can manually close(cable to it is disconnected and I don't know what controls it if it was hooked up)

What I want to know is in winter wouldn't cold air be blowing through those spots? Also what are the odds of water getting in the cab through that vent? How do I close this off?

 

[Rexx66]

Ok I did some searching and found on the driver side of the vent there is a flap that opens and closes (apparently I have no functional knob that works it) and it was wide open, so I just closed it with my hand. The other side I'm assing goes down to the vent on the heating unit which has a flap in it, which also does not work, so I manually closed it too.

Which knob on the dash is supposed to control these flaps? And will I need to open/close them when it comes winter time? 90% of the time I have the top and everything off.

 

[Supertrunk]

This is my '81 CJ7 , but yours should be similar.

All the control cables go to either the left, center, or right sides of the passenger side "suitcase".

The top knob is the fan switch.

The second knob down is the Air cable, it has three positions: all the way in (off), out about 2" (heat) and out about 3" (vent). It goes to the center and right sides of the suitcase.

All the way in it shuts off the center (inner) and right hand "doors".







About 2" out (Heat) opens the center door half-way, but leaves the right hand door closed.







All the way out, about 3" (Vent), opens the center door fully and opens the right hand door fully.







The third knob down is the Temp knob, and it goes to the left side of the suitcase, and controls.........well.........temperature. All the way in is cold, and all the way out is hot.









The fourth, last knob, controls the Defroster. All the way in is off, and all the way out is on. It goes to the lest side of the suitcase.









Hope this helps.

 

[Rexx66]

After a little water hose inspection... I found my dash leak is being caused from the cowl vent on my hood. The drain is draining and has no debris in the hose that would cause it to back up, and both vent doors are closed, still leaks though.

Can I just close that vent off completely since I probably wont ever use my heat since its kaput currently? Do I need it for the heat if I do get it fixed? Don't see any visible cracks in it, but I will double check...

 

[Jimbos76cj]

After a little water hose inspection... I found my dash leak is being caused from the cowl vent on my hood. The drain is draining and has no debris in the hose that would cause it to back up, and both vent doors are closed, still leaks though.

Can I just close that vent off completely since I probably wont ever use my heat since its kaput currently? Do I need it for the heat if I do get it fixed? Don't see any visible cracks in it, but I will double check...

Yes you can close it off completely. depending on how you seal it you may end up with water pooling on top of the seal causing it to leak any way. The vent at the top is only held in by a few screws that attach around the opening in the cowl. id would pull it out, inspect it for cracks and spray some ofthat flex seal into it and if it will stop the leak.

 

[PaRenegade]

Mine has always leaked. What I found is the seal around the flap thats under the cowl grille was too big and deformed itself enough to not let it seal. I trimmed it a bit with a razor blade and now it seems to fit better when it closes. But the Jeep is still in pieces so I don't know if it fixed it or not.

 

[Rexx66]

Yes you can close it off completely. depending on how you seal it you may end up with water pooling on top of the seal causing it to leak any way. The vent at the top is only held in by a few screws that attach around the opening in the cowl. id would pull it out, inspect it for cracks and spray some ofthat flex seal into it and if it will stop the leak.

Just didn't know if this would affect the heat at all if and when I get it going...

If use Flexseal but I used it all making a boat out of a screen door that I had laying around... 8)